Pastry Cream Recipe | Wolf Gourmet

Pastry Cream

Pastry cream is a thick vanilla pudding-like sweet cream that you'll often find piped into éclairs, Boston cream doughnuts, and cream puffs. You can also spread it in a baked tart shell and top with fruit, dollop it on top of pavlova (a pie-like meringue), or layer it with cookies and fruit for a trifle or icebox cake. Instead of vanilla extract, you could substitute any other extract, such as almond or coconut.

Preparation Method

Whisk together the sugar and cornstarch in a medium bowl and make a well in the center. Whisk together the egg yolks and 2 table-spoons of the milk in another medium bowl, then add it to the well in the sugar mixture and whisk until combined.
Pour the remaining milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the vanilla extract and warm the mixture over medium heat (keep an eye on it so it doesn’t boil over).
Prepare a large bowl with ice water and set aside. Slowly whisk some of the warm milk into the egg mixture, adding more while whisking until the bottom of the bowl feels warm. Return the egg-milk mixture to the saucepan.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a heat-safe rubber spatula that can get into the corners of the saucepan, until the mixture is thick and glossy, tastes sweet, and doesn’t leave a starchy aftertaste. Transfer the hot pastry cream to a medium heat-safe bowl and set over the ice water, making sure the ice water doesn’t get into the pastry cream. Let the pastry cream cool, stirring occasionally, until it reaches room temperature. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the pastry cream’s sur-face to prevent a skin from forming on the top. Refrigerate until well chilled, for at least 2 hours or up to 1 week.